


I was

by tea_for_lupin



Category: Book of Taliesin, Welsh Mythology
Genre: Gen, Hanes Taliesin, Poetry, Riddle poems, Shapeshifting, Transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-25
Packaged: 2017-12-22 18:48:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/916756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tea_for_lupin/pseuds/tea_for_lupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poems and reflections on the myth of Cerridwen and Taliesin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Apple

I was an apple  
when you plucked me from the tree;  
your hand was rough,  
the teeth bit me. Lips and tongue  
were soft - then, the juices flowed  
over your fingers  
and down your throat.

There was fear  
in the coming apart.

Now that you've had me,  
I rest in your belly,  
waiting.


	2. Thief

I have been the thief, heart-hungry,  
pale hand reaching  
for honey  
and bread  
and other golden things; 

I have been the stolen, grasped roughly,  
untethered silently -  
the necklace on the sleeping neck,  
the cattle in the field,  
the body  
that isn't yours to own;

And I have been the taken-from,  
turning to find absence where  
the world should have been full,  
as you vanish,  
and vanish,  
and vanish.


	3. Trees

I have been the white birch -  
straight and supple  
as the young flame in the forge,  
burning with a white heat.

I am the oak, deep-rooted,  
outlasting the storm; gods and poets  
are released in the lightning's strike -  
I birth them, mightily.

I have been the eucalypt,   
sweeping my grey leaves  
against the grey sky, blossoms  
bursting in the winter wind, and  
the red earth lies cold at my feet,  
dreaming.

I have been the willow, drinking slowly,  
drowning my golden hair  
in the dozing river, listening to  
the whispers of the water.

I am the hawthorn, white-crowned,  
red-berried; my thorns are long,  
and I will seize you,  
beautifully.


End file.
